Roommate: Men paid Hall cash for marriage, immigration status

By Jason Graziadei

Friday

Aug 13, 2010 at 2:00 AM

I&M Senior Writer

Trudie Hall, the 23-year-old pregnant woman missing since late July, married as many as three different men to get them legal immigration status in the United States in exchange for large amounts of cash, according to Hall’s former roommate.

Hall allegedly accepted $20,000 from Ram Rimal, a Nepalese landscaper who works on Nantucket, in exchange for her hand in marriage, according to the person who briefly lived with Hall and asked to not be named. The roommate also believes Hall may have accepted cash from one man, but never went through with marrying him.

“One of them, she didn’t go through with, she took the money but she didn’t go through with it,” the person said. “She was doing that to help them to get their papers, for them to be legal in the country.”

The roommate believes Hall is still alive, despite reports that blood and bullet fragments were found in her rental car on Cape Cod following her disappearance.

“She always talked about going to Florida, and I think she’s trying to stay away and hide,” the roommate said. “After everything that came out about three marriages and the money, she ain’t going to come back.”

Hall would stay in her room, chatting on the phone or surfing the Internet, and was generally quiet, the roommate said of the few months they spent together in an apartment. Rimal was never at their apartment, said the person, who claimed to have seen the Nepalese landscaper with Hall on only two occasions at a Nantucket hairdressing business.

The Cape Cod Times reported Wednesday that not only was Hall married to Rimal last year, but was also wedded to another man, Doucet McDowe, six months earlier, according to probate records from Barnstable and Plymouth counties. Hall’s roommate had not heard of McDowe, and claimed there was a third marriage, but did not know the name of the individual involved.

Rimal, through his attorney Michael Wilson, claims he spent the night with Hall just before she disappeared on Cape Cod two weeks ago. Rimal, 41, allegedly took a plane to Hyannis on July 27, where Hall picked him at the Barnstable Municipal Airport, Wilson said this week. The couple had dinner, went to see a movie, and fell asleep together at the Bayside Resort in West Yarmouth. When Rimal awoke the next day, Hall was gone.

“He’s very concerned and worried for her safety,” Wilson said Wednesday. “The last time he saw her was when he went to sleep at night. He didn’t see her the next day, and doesn’t know where she went.”

Hall, who graduated from Nantucket, has been missing ever since, despite an extensive search and investigation by Cape Cod law enforcement agencies and the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s office.

Rimal was interviewed by investigators last week, but has not been named a suspect or person of interest in the case. Wilson said he was hired by Rimal on Tuesday, Aug. 3, after he had been questioned by police.

Wilson claims Rimal was not aware his wife was married to another man, but Rimal did know that Hall was pregnant with someone else’s child at the time of her disappearance.

“She told him she was pregnant with someone else’s child,” Wilson said. “Ram did not hire me to do his divorce. He was very much in love with her and married to her.

Wilson could not immediately be reached for comment Friday, and Hall’s mother, Vivienne Walker, was not available.

Hall, a 2005 graduate of Nantucket High School, is originally from Jamaica, but has lived on the island since she was 13, according to her mother. After authorities were alerted of her disappearance, police reportedly found her rental car abandoned off Route 6 on July 30, with blood and bullet casings found inside. The following day, state and local police launched a massive search for Hall in areas of West Barnstable and Hyannis, and launched an extensive search again on Monday, but despite the use of a police helicopter and tracking dogs, officers have still not located her. Hall is described as a slender black woman, 5-feet, 5-inches tall.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe has not released any information regarding Hall’s disappearance, other than to say that it is an active missing-persons investigation. O’Keefe did not return a call this week seeking comment about the case. Last Thursday police searched the Centerville home of Quoizel Wilson, a former Nantucket man, in connection to Hall’s disappearance. The Cape Cod Times reported that a motorcycle and a Nissan Armada were removed from Wilson's home during the search. Wilson, who has not been named a suspect in the case, was spotted leaving the Barnstable police station last Thursday afternoon.

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